Newcastle brush aside sloppy Arsenal to reach Carabao Cup final - 6 talking points

Newcastle put in a fearless and devastating display against in-form Arsenal on Wednesday evening to book their place in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley, where they'll look to win a first domestic trophy in 70 years. Eddie Howe's men came into the game with a 2-0 lead after their excellent first-leg performance, but there were fears that it could be a dangerous scoreline against an Arsenal side that thumped Manchester City 5-1 at the weekend.

The Magpies, however, made a mockery over those claims as put in a tireless display to frustrate the Gunners as they went 1-0 up in the first half through Jacob Murphy - after Alexander Isak's earlier effort was ruled out through offside. Arsenal looked off the pace despite their heroics over City and Martin Odegaard missed a golden chance to equalise from close range in the first half. Newcastle kept the pressure on the Gunners in the second half as Anthony Gordon capitalised on a calamitous error from David Raya to make it 2-0 and leave supporters dreaming of glory at Wembley.

Mirror Football has taken a look at six talking points as Arsenal's hopes of glory were ended at St James' Park. It so easily could have been a dream start for the Magpies - who thought they had essentially booked their place at the Carabao Cup within the first four minutes as a beautiful through ball from Anthony Gordon played Alexander Isak through on goal. The Swedish forward took one touch before finishing superbly past Raya - only to discover he was marginally offside, crushing the hearts of delirious Newcastle fans.

VAR took a long look at it and drew up the lines - deciding that a small part of Isak was just off, despite the zoomed out picture looking like he was level. The neutrals were gutted for Isak to have his goal chalked off despite pulling off such an impressive and calm finish to continue his fabulous season that has led to huge interest from the Gunners. Life comes at you quickly in football and how different this tie could have been had Martin Odeagaard properly laced up his shooting boots on Wednesday night.

A fantastic Gunners move saw Leandro Trossard brilliantly backheel the ball into the path of Gabriel Martinelli, who was sent flying by Dan Burn. The ball then rolled into the path of Odegaard, who let fly but somehow missed the target completely with the goal gaping. It was shocking miss from the Norwegian, who was made to pay for it just moments later as Newcastle went up the other end and made it 3-0 on aggregate. Isak smashed his effort off the crossbar, with the rebound falling kindly for Josh Murphy to bundle into the net.

It appeared to be a cruel twist of fate for Mikel Arteta's men, but they can only have themselves to blame for failing to take their huge chance. Everything seemed to go wrong for Arsenal in this game and things went from bad to worse after they went a goal down. Just before the half time, Gabriel Martinelli went down with a muscle injury and looked like he was struggling. In such a big game, the Brazilian wouldn't have come off unless absolutely necessary but after physios came on to give him treatment, he didn't seem like he could continue.

He was subbed off by Arteta, who clearly didn't want to take any chances in case he exacerbated the issue, with youngster Ethan Nwaneri brought on to replace him. His injury, should it prove to be serious, will only add to the chorus of frustration from Arsenal fans who questioned why the club didn't make a single signing in the January transfer window. Anyone expecting Arsenal to continue their thumping form from that devastating 5-1 win over City was left with their jaw dropped as Newcastle ripped up the script.

We know 2-0 is a tricky scoreline and one that can change quickly - especially for a team like Arsenal - but even the most pessimistic of supporters could have predicted they would put in such a flat display on Tyneside. The Gunners looked off the pace from the first whistle, with William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes looking "rattled", according to Gary Neville on commentary duty. For Newcastle's first goal, Saliba was left in the dust by Isak while Gabriel was unable to stop Murphy turning the ball into the empty net.

The Magpies nearly made it 2-0 in the second half when Gabriel headed the ball back to Saliba in a dangerous position - with the Frenchman turning straight into Gordon, who came inches from lobbing Raya off his line. But moments later Gordon got the goal he deserved as more sloppy play by Arsenal saw Raya pass to an under pressure Declan Rice, with Fabian Schar dispossessing him and allowing the winger to fire home.

This was an absolute far cry from their weekend performance and Arteta will be scratching his head over how their levels dropped so much. Match of the Day pundits Alan Shearer and Ian Wright are close friends on and off the screen so it was inevitable Newcastle fanatic Shearer was going to poke fun at his Arsenal-supporting pal. After watching Isak's dominant performance up front that had Gabriel and Saliba chasing shadows, Shearer took to Twitter to rave about his performance.